Angela Orosco
Angela Orosco is the tritagonist of Silent Hill 2. Angela is a homeless teenage runaway on a search for her missing mother, who James Sunderland encounters four times. Much like James, she is looking for a loved one, and felt "called" to Silent Hill, Maine. It is later revealed she killed her family either out of revenge or to escape the abuse she suffered, after being raped and beaten as a child, as well as during most of her life. Angela is mentally ill; she is disturbed, depressed, lonely, traumatized and suicidal. Appearance Angela's hair is a very dark brown and shoulder-length and she has brown eyes. She also wears a hair pin with a red jewel over her right ear. Angela wears a white or beige sweater with a loose turtle neck which reaches her waist. She has reddish-brown jeans. The shoes that she wears are casual and dark blue. Her introverted nature and the covering of her entire body may result from her past sexual abuse and the uncomfortable feeling of being exposed, which is common among victims of abuse. It may also cover up any bruises from her physical abuse. Personality Angela is shy to strangers, quiet and somber. She appears to be a regular girl, but is clearly different from others on how she deals and relates to death and sexuality. Her sense of values is eccentric, and she has a scent of danger. She speaks with a slight nervous stutter/stammer, a form of speech impediment, stumbling over her words, e.g. "Who-who-who is it?", "I-I-I mean my mother...", and lack of confidence, such as "This... uhh... th-this town..." and tends to say "sorry" a lot to James, experiencing difficulty asserting herself. When James doesn't seem to believe Angela when she warns him that Silent Hill is a dangerous town, she yells, "I'm not lying!" Angela has no known friends and seemingly has no one to talk to about her feelings. Mental health Angela's mental health has been damaged by her emotionally, mentally, physically and sexually abusive past and unhappy violent childhood, as well as her dysfunctional family who beat and raped her throughout her entire life. Her entire childhood consisted of her being raped, beaten, screamed at, and told she's worthless. As a result, Angela has extremely low self-esteem and is self-loathing, feeling she is not worthy of love, pity or basic human respect. Angela is suffering from extreme suicidal existential depression and doesn't see the point of living, and feels that everything is hopeless, pointless and meaningless. She does not wish to live or exist, having lost the will to live and doesn't care about anything. To Angela, life feels more like something to be coped with, instead of enjoyed. Every day feels like a big chore to her and she has no motivation to get out of bed each morning. Angela exhibits several common symptoms of severe daily long-term depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety. She is frequently tired, exhausted, drowsy, and has trouble sleeping, displaying symptoms of insomnia, psychomotor retardation and mental/brain fog. In the novelization, it is revealed Angela feels she is physically ugly and dislikes looking into mirrors because they act as a reminder for her. She describes her reflection as an "ugly thing" that "doesn't look like her anymore". This may imply that she also has body dysmorphic disorder, an issue among child abuse victims and people suffering from depression and anxiety, where the person perceives their body as being permanently damaged, disgusting, unattractive, scarred, or repulsive. Knowing she has her father's DNA and genes in her only exemplifies her feelings of anger, frustration and disgust towards her own body - no matter how far she gets away from him, a part of him will always remain in her until the day she dies. Suicidal ideations Angela's internal pain and suffering include thoughts of death and suicide on her. According to the novelization, Angela attempted suicide many times. She considered slitting her wrists, jumping off a building as well as overdosing on drugs, but always ended up hesitating at the last moment, such as regurgitating pills. She compares her suicide attempts to buying a mountain of candy and forcing herself to devour it all, eating to spit it back out, and spitting it out to eat more. Angela describes it as an endless cycle of binging and purging which could go on for days. Angela told James "After all, it's what we deserve," when he tells her that "there's always a better way." She also says that it's "easier to run", implying that her reasoning behind her desire for suicide is twofold - both as an escape from her suffering, and as a punishment for her "wrongdoings" or mistakes. What she believes she did wrong is not stated, but it is most likely being a victim of abuse (she states that her mother said that she deserved it, and seems to agree with that sentiment) or her act of murder on her family. Misanthropy and possible androphobia/misandry She believes most people are insincere, superficial and shallow, giving her fake meaningless smiles and hollow words, as is shown with her interactions with James. She claims James "only cares about himself". When James Sunderland remains silent after she asks him if he would help her, she scornfully replies, "Hmph. That's what I thought." and James' silence is enough to push her over the edge and kill herself. She appears to have androphobia (fear of men) or misandry (dislike of men), telling James, "It's always the same, you're only after one thing! You don't have to lie, go ahead and say it!" (sex). One of her quotes from the novelization is, "It is a stench as disgusting and bestial as the lust of men." Having been raped by her father and brother, as well as being sexually harassed at work (according to the novelization) may have led her to generalize men as lustful and bestial. However, she seems to also be able to care about James, and even be calm around him, so she may just act this way when memories of her trauma arise. It is possible that Angela had no positive male role models. When James encounters Angela on the fiery staircase, she appears to staring vacantly (perhaps admiring) a painting made of male human corpses with blood-stained crotches, with holes where their penises should be, which may also suggest misandry. The novelization implies these are symbolic of Angela's father and brother, and could be interpreted as her contempt towards them. Anger Angela's history of abuse has caused her to develop a more volatile, enraged side to her personality than would be expected when she is first met, a result of her pent-up anger and frustration. After James first defeats the Abstract Daddy, she violently lashes out at it, kicking it multiple times before lifting a nearby TV and smashing it on top of the monster. When James attempts to calm her down, she snaps at him, thinking he is trying to control her like her father. She also callously accuses him of lying about Mary, saying that James didn't want to be with her, and wanted someone else. Biography Angela was born and grew up in a poor and toxic family. Because of her violent, abusive and traumatic childhood, Angela was convinced that she would never truly find happiness in life, after being forced to lose her innocence as a child and grow up too fast. Her father, Thomas Orosco, an aggressive alcoholic lumberjack, sexually and physically abused her while inebriated throughout her life. This caused her to harbor much contempt towards men. In addition, Angela's brother would also abuse her incestuously, only adding to her trauma. Meanwhile Angela's mother frequently reminded her that she deserved her abuse and as a result, Angela endured it as she grew up. Although Angela's mother knew what was happening, she never intervened. It seems that Angela never told anyone outside her family about her sexual and physical abuse, possibly out of fear of what her father would do if he found out, so Angela endured it. At an unknown point in time (Angela says "It's been so long since I've seen her" in Silent Hill 2), Angela's mother eventually left her family, leaving Angela alone with her father and brother. It is unknown why Mrs. Orosco left her family, but given that she lived with a husband who had a history of violence and alcoholism, it is possible Mrs. Orosco was also a victim of Thomas and wanted to end contact with him. It is possible Mrs. Orosco planned on reconnecting with her children when they were old enough to move out and leave Thomas. It is also unknown if Angela's mother is even alive during Silent Hill 2; it is possible she left her family to go kill herself and hid her suicide from Angela and her brother to ease the burden. Later, according to the novelization, Angela found a job as a waitress at a restaurant, a tiresome and boring job she absolutely despised due to the pathetically low minimum wage income (150 USD a week, which would result in an annual salary of 7,200 USD), her distaste of the nauseating smell of cooking meat and the perverted male customers always trying to touch her body. Because of her traumatic experiences, boring exhausting dead end slave job, mental health issues, as well as her failure to achieve any form of release from her torment, Angela became suicidal. According to the novelization, Angela visited a doctor at a hospital and all he did was prescribe drugs (presumably anti-depressants), but they did not work and the side effects of which were torturous on her. Angela felt this doctor didn't understand her. After Angela graduated high school, she ran away from home but was found and dragged back by her father. It is unknown how old Angela was when she tried to leave home - since Angela presumably lived in Maine, if Angela was 18 or older, it would have been illegal for Thomas to force Angela to return. It is unknown if Thomas continued to rape Angela after taking her back. Regardless, at the Orosco residence around midnight, Angela took a kitchen knife and stabbed her father in the neck in anger, slitting his throat, and stabbed him in the torso multiple times. There is evidence of a struggle in the room, implying that Thomas fought for his life, but was overwhelmed by Angela. She did not bother to take her family's cash or hide her father's corpse and fled the house. According to the novelization, Angela also murdered her brother, but it doesn't go into detail. Being in a state of emotional turmoil afterwards due to being the target of a murder investigation, with no one to turn to and nowhere else to go, Angela was called to Silent Hill in order to try to find her missing mother, her final hope. It is implied that Angela's mother may have lived (or died) in Silent Hill. Silent Hill 2 On the way to Silent Hill, James Sunderland encounters Angela in a cemetery examining a grave. He spooks her and Angela says, "Oh! I'm... I'm sorry... I was just..." James then says it's okay, and that he's lost and can't find the way to Silent Hill. Angela says that there's only the one road to Silent Hill and that he can't miss it, but warns him that there's "something wrong" about Silent Hill and that he should stay away for his own good. When Angela begins to go into detail about how Silent Hill is dangerous, James tries to end the conversation and leave, causing Angela to yell "I'm not lying!" James says she misunderstood and that he believes her, it's just that he doesn't really care if it's dangerous since he's determined to find someone special to him no matter what. Angela empathizes and says she is also looking for her "mama", but then realizes how childish "mama" sounds and says "I mean my mother". Angela says she hasn't seen her mother for a long time, and that she thought her father and brother were here, but she can't find them either. However, Angela had murdered her father and brother prior the events of the game. This is similar to James, who tells her that he is looking for his wife, despite her being dead. It can be assumed that Angela either lied to James or repressed the memory of her murders. Angela then says, "I'm sorry... it's not your problem." and James and Angela wish each other hope in finding their missing ones before leaving. A while later, James finds her lying on the floor in Room 109 of the Blue Creek Apartments with the knife she used as the murder weapon, contemplating suicide beside a large mirror in a dark room, having given up on life. James tries to talk Angela out of suicide and tells her "there's always another way" and they change topics to Angela's mother. Through Angela's dialogue, it is heavily implied that her mother once lived in Silent Hill. When Angela learns that James's wife Mary is dead after he shows her Mary's photo, she appears uncomfortable and unnerved and tells him that she's going to resume searching for her mother. James takes Angela's knife from her at her request since if she kept it, she's not sure what she might do. At first, she jumps back and points it toward him as if defending herself, but then she calms down and apologizes. She flees in panic after he initially tries to take it out of her hand, likely due to her trauma and feeling unsafe around other men and strangers, as well as James saying he's searching for someone who's dead and trying to assure her he's not crazy. Examining the knife often is one of the factors which enables the "In Water" ending of the game, in which James suicides. In the labyrinth area, a bloody newspaper article can be found stating that Thomas Orosco, a lumberjack, was stabbed to death in the neck with a knife and that police have opened a murder investigation. James then hears Angela's voice scream "No, Daddy! Please, don't!" behind a room covered with newspapers, perhaps symbolic of Angela being forced to remember killing her father, and possible worry of the media attention surrounding it. Inside, James finds her sitting in a state of catatonia on the floor, cowering away from a monstrous version of her father known as Abstract Daddy, too frightened and terrified to move or stand up. On the fleshy walls of the room are holes with pistons making thrusting motions, akin to a penis thrusting in and out of a vagina. These further evoke Angela's perspective of her rape: a mechanical, emotionless, inescapable experience. It is possible every piston is symbolic of how many times she was molested (23). After James defeats the creature, Angela viciously kicks it and throws a TV on it, killing it. Angela, acting with disdain and general hatred towards James and all men, falls to the floor and sobs while making some vomiting sounds, and becomes physically ill while remembering her father raping and beating her. James tries to console her by touching her shoulder and Angela screams at him to back off and not touch her, and that he makes her sick. Angela asks James if Mary is really dead, and James replies that Mary died of her illness. Angela shouts "LIAR!" at him, claims she knows about him and that he didn't want Mary around any more, and then accuses him of abandoning Mary for another woman before leaving the room with a sigh of disgust. Angela is last seen at a burning staircase in the Lakeview Hotel, vacantly standing between two skinned blood-stained male corpses stitched to a frame, symbolic of her dead father and brother. Initially, she confuses James for her mother and tells him that she wishes he never saved her from the Abstract Daddy, and instead, left her to die. Angela tells James not to pity her and, almost in a mockingly sarcastic way, asks him if he would take her in his care and help heal her emotional pain, but James looks down, ashamed. James' silence is enough to push Angela over the edge and make her want to kill herself; she asks James to return her knife so that she can kill herself, but he declines. Angela asks James if he's "saving it for himself" and after he answers no, Angela turns around and ascends the burning staircase. Before she leaves, James says the room they're in is hot as hell. Angela replies, "For me... It's always like this."; her life was always a living hell. With no family, friends, home, job, money or reason to exist, having fled from police due to being the target of a murder investigation, with no reason to live and burdened by her emotional torment and distress with nowhere else to go in the world, Angela then disappears past the flames, leaving to find another way to suicide, feeling that it is the only choice and option she has left, eventually killing herself off-screen. This scene should not be mistaken as Angela literally setting herself on fire; it could also be interpreted as Angela "walking to her grave" or symbolically "ascending the staircase to Heaven/Hell/afterlife/death". Trivia * There is a notable theory that Angela's Otherworld resembles the house she grew up/was abused in, affirmed by the novelization saying the room Abstract Daddy is fought in resembles a room from her childhood home. * It can be theorized that Angela set her house on fire, but there is no proof of this. If Angela did set their house on fire, the newspaper would have mentioned it, but it does not. The fire in the Lakeview Hotel scene could simply be because the hotel was once on fire. * Angela's physical appearance seems to be based off Sandra Bullock, especially considering her character in The Net was also named Angela. * Angela is voiced by Donna Burke, who later voiced Claudia Wolf in Silent Hill 3. Both characters were severely abused by their fathers, and both games involve a fight by the protagonist against a monstrous representation of their father. Laura Bailey also reprised the role of both Angela and Claudia in the HD Collection. * In the "Making of Silent Hill 2", the developers stated that Angela was originally supposed to be 16-17, but Donna Burke's voice and her image made her seem older, so they changed her age to 19. When some first-time players of Silent Hill 2 meet Angela, they tend to mistake her for being in her 30s. ** It also shows how the detrimental effects of abuse and stress can cause a child to biologically grow up faster (fast maturation) and leave permanent scars which can remain in adulthood, not to mention the psychological damage. A study revealed child abuse literally kills them faster. * Angela appears on the cover of Silent Hill 2 and The Silent Hill Experience. * In the intro of the game, Angela is seen running in a house. This could be interpreted as Angela running away from her father, or running away to Silent Hill. * In Room 109, there are two distinct and contrasting doors side to side. One door on the left is dark and boarded up, while the other is white and clean. They could represent the path to Hell and Heaven, or childhood and adolescence as there is a teddy bear next to the dark door. Alternatively, it may represent Angela's desire to repress the dark memories of her defiled youth, in favor of purity and a clean slate. Angela is inside of the room past the white door, contemplating suicide. * In Japan, the color of white is considered to be pure, but it is also the color of death (as in the purity of death). Angela's sweater is also white and may have "death" symbolism. When James first meets Angela, Angela is shrouded in a white foggy cemetery. * The prisoner coin may be connected to Angela somehow, as it has a woman who strongly resembles her on it. The woman on the coin is facing to the left and is blindfolded. Whether or not it truly is Angela on the coin is unknown. Aside from the woman on the coin, it's possible that the developers intended it to be connected to Angela in some way, as it appears in the room where she considers suicide and Angela was a prisoner to her father. * In Room 109, in the room where Angela was, if the player examines the floor in a certain spot, a photo can be found of a family, which may be Angela's family. The photo shows a mother, father, daughter and brother, matching Angela's family members. The photo is ripped between the girl and her father and brother, implying that Angela may have been a little girl when she was sexually abused, and that she ripped the photo out of disdain for her father and brother. * The three tablets in the prison appear to represent James, Eddie Dombrowski, and Angela. "I give you blood to atone for the three Sins" is written where the three tablets need to be placed. Angela's "sin" was murdering her father, while Eddie murdered a dog and James murdered Mary. Angela's tablet is "The Seductress", which is found inside of a shower stall. Rape victims normally take showers soon afterwards to abolish the feelings of filth, which may mean Angela took showers after sexual abuse. * In the Abstract Daddy's labyrinth room, there are several holes with pistons or sphincters inside of them, which move with a steady thrust. The walls appear to be made out of flesh or raw meat, with a texture resembling clay which someone has dragged their fingers across. In the novelization, it is stated that the room has an unpleasant odor. These details could represent the sexual abuse inflicted upon Angela. In the novelization, the room is reminiscent of a room from her childhood home, implied to be a living room, hence the television. It is possible every piston is symbolic of how many times Angela was molested (23). * It is possible that Angela views Abstract Daddy differently than James, and that she sees her own father, Thomas, as the monster, which is why she calls it "daddy". However, because James did not know Thomas, it takes the form of an abstract monster to him. However, the boss Mary represents his guilt of killing Mary, and he sees her as a monster (albeit a human monster), so this is uncertain. * Right before James fights Eddie Dombrowski, he comes across a small graveyard. There are three open graves: each has James's, Angela's and Eddie's names written on them. * In the burning staircase, there are two bodies on the walls that are covered by sheets stretched tightly across them, conveying the idea of restricted movement; being held down. The sheets strongly resemble human skin stitched to a frame. The bodies are stained in the crotch with dried blood, with obvious castration wounds. These represent Angela's father and brother, not only affirmed in the novelization which James describes as a "middle-aged man" and "younger man", but also confirmed by Ito. The corpse also appears in the short film "Fukuro". * When James states "It's hot as hell in here", Angela replies "You see it, too? For me... it's always like this". This could mean that Angela's Otherworld is full of flames, heat and constant burning, or, due to a very abusive childhood she has experienced, she may have stated that her life was a living hell. * At the top of the hotel stairs, if the player uses a camera hack, Angela can be seen bending and twisting. * Although the Silent Hill 2 novelization stated that Angela's brother also sexually abused her, this is never mentioned in the game itself. The game also never mentions the death of Angela's brother, though Angela implies it when she says "Now you're the only one left", referring to her mother. * Angela's death is never shown or mentioned in the game, but Masahiro Ito confirmed that she did indeed die, though he did not remember how. Angela killing herself is also suggested in the novelization which mentions "she was off to find her grave." * In Silent Hill 3, Heather Mason encounters a Closer feeding on a woman's body in the Central Square Shopping Center. Her face and clothing resemble Angela's, but her hair is shorter and her clothes are of different colors. According to developer Masahiro Ito, it was created by re-using one of Angela's character models. Due to the model's clothing and hair differences, it may have been an early concept model, or just an edited version. * In Silent Hill 3, three posters advertising Silent Hill 2 are also found in the office section of the shopping mall. The posters depict Angela's face with a blue background. * In the Xbox 360 version of Silent Hill: Homecoming, if the player does not forgive Adam Shepherd, the main protagonist's father, they get an achievement called "Angela's Choice". Angela never forgave her father (and brother) for sexually abusing her. * In Silent Hill: Downpour, a boat stationed at the docks near DJ Ricks's boat is named "Angela's Fire," a probable reference to Angela. * Konami turned Silent Hill 2 into a pachislot. Oddly enough, Angela and her story are omitted, while Eddie is still in it. It's possible that the developers of the pachislot found Angela's too dark. * Angela may have inspired Anna from the Silent Hill film. This is supported by her anxious, awkward nature, and even has a knife taken from her just as James Sunderland did to Angela in the game. Their names also both begin with "An," and much like Angela, Anna seems devout to one purpose; in her first scene, she explains her adamant service regarding God and Christabella, and in the game, Angela seems solely motivated by the need to find her mother. Lastly, both Angela and Anna are brutalized by powerful male figures, with Angela being abused by her father, and Anna killed by Pyramid Head, a representation of raw male brutality. * Her predicament is also very similar to Shannon from Silent Hill: Book of Memories (teenager, suffering from suicidal depression, being involved with an older man). * Angela shares some physical similarities with Alessa Gillespie, Jodie Mason and Fukuro Lady. * Angela shares a lot of similarities with Alice Liddell from American McGee's Alice (teenager, depressed, suicidal, thoughts of cutting, fire symbolism, bloody knife symbolism). American McGee's Alice was released a year before Silent Hill 2 and had a strong influence on the psychological horror video game genre. It is possible American McGee's Alice partially inspired Silent Hill 2 and Angela. As proven in the series, Team Silent were fascinated by Alice in Wonderland, going so far as to make it one of Alessa Gillespie's favorite books, and cited Jan Švankmajer's Alice as an inspiration of Silent Hill 2. The similarities go even further with Alice: Madness Returns, which adds family rape as backstory (albeit to Alice's sister, Lizzie), although Madness Returns was released later. * Angela may have inspired Mayu from the Elfen Lied series, which was released not too long after Silent Hill 2, in terms of background and appearance. Like Angela, Mayu was also a homeless teenager who was raped by her (step)father, and was ignored and verbally abused by her mother, which resulted in her running away from home. Furthermore, the two share a distinctly similar hairstyle and wear a long, beige, turtleneck sweater covering a large amount of her body, as to not expose her breasts. Mayu's backstory is revealed in episode 5 of Elfen Lied. Mayu even finds a dog called "James", but then decides to call the dog "Wanta". Category:Silent Hill Heroes Category:Supporters Category:Suicidal Category:Deceased Category:Video Game Heroes Category:Horror Heroes Category:Neutral Good Category:Tragic Category:Victims Category:Related to Villain Category:Anti Hero Category:Vengeful Category:Wrathful Category:Heroic Jerks